Go-with-the-Flow Saturday #7

Today certainly was a go-with-the-flow day.

I got in a walk with the dog again. This time my daughter came and I told her because it was still "dark out" that we had to be quiet. It was the quietest walk I've ever had with her. It felt nice.

When I got home, I spent the morning working on some meal prep. I made chicken for salads during the week. I also made mini-meatloaves that we can just throw in the microwave when we're hungry or I can take them to eat. So I accidentally made a very messy kitchen. I also made more hard boiled eggs. My daughter eats those, too, so it's nice to have them on hand. Then I made breakfast for myself and my husband (my daughter wanted her yogurt and cereal).

After a little downtime, I got my husband onboard with things I wanted to do. We went up to my classroom and started to fiddle about with things. The construction still isn't done, so I'm a little irked that I can't do everything I need to do, but I have some ideas now and I think I'll see if I can get him to go with me again tomorrow to put my vision into practice. It is incredibly hard to get a minimum of 12 desks at 6x6x6x6 apart in my classroom. My coworker got 15 in hers, so we'll see what I can do.

It was a pretty active morning, so my afternoon was relaxed.

Late in the day, I received an email from my district that I would be teaching 1 section of Literacy through eAcademy for, what they call, an overload. I was so excited! They had sent out a survey a bit ago and I had replied with a yes, but I hadn't heard anything. So I'm really excited to have been given the opportunity and the pay will be helpful, especially since my husband lost his clients due to the COVID stuff.

After that we got in the missed game of Sagrada from Thursday! I won, but not by much. I think technically my husband won, because we realized after scoring that I had a wonky die, but so did my daughter. So we enacted the "wonky die" house rule. It was my daughter's first time playing. So in spirit I won... technically I think it was a "false win."

The rest of the evening was bouncing between school work and watching television. I've found that I do not like the start of the Gilmore Girls Season 4. Too much tension, most of which doesn't even need to be there. Quite a bit of which is between Loralei and her mom. It felt forced and manufactured and immature. Like the writers felt like she needed to constantly explain the issues with her mother and then even Rory got in on the action. There are issues in their relationships, I get it... maybe too clearly, but geepers... Then the Luke thing! Sookie and the baby drama. Jackson really is a dolt. Oh goodness and this is where Zack "takes over" the band. I never really liked Zack. He's so whiny and immature. Oh and the whole Dean storyline... oh my goodness... Just lots of "what in the world is wrong with these people" storylines. Kirk, though, starts developing more and his weirdness is finally being appreciated. Huh... I wonder how many people have done academic papers on the way men are portrayed in the Sherman-Palladino worlds of Gilmore Girls and Mrs. Maisel.

But that was the day. Some catch up and some work. Really just going with whatever the day gave us.

Dungeons & Dragons Tuesday #7 (moved to Wednesday)

Day 2 of anxiety sleep issues. I'm falling hard asleep at 9PM and waking up at 4AM. I couldn't fall back asleep, so I found myself downstairs by 4:45AM and watching Riverdale.

Then I started to try to do some school work, because we will be returning to the classroom for school.

At some point I started to just spiral into sadness and I couldn't put my finger on what it was, specifically, or if it was one thing within my control. I think everything was finally catching up to me and I just broke down into tears. I was trying to think of things that would make me happy, but there is so much going on in my head that there was a great deal of vying for space in my head.

Finally, though, I asked Ray to color my hair purple and from there it was a wave of happiness. The hair isn't perfect, but it's purple and that's what matters. I kept admiring it all day and it just makes me happy to have my hair this color.

Then Ray let me get sushi from our local sushi place and it was like heaven in my mouth. I get the whole idea of comfort food and not using food as a comfort tool, BUT this was different. It was the experience of having sushi. Not just the food in my mouth. It was using the chopsticks and savoring the explosion of flavors and the smell of the ginger. It was a package deal and it made me feel good inside.

The Rock Star I started drinking also kicked in and I was awake. By the end of the day I had a couple and I felt amazing!

I stopped worrying about getting in my steps or eating Keto. Whatever to my alarm that says I should go walk on the treadmill. No worrying about not being able to eat something you're craving, because it doesn't kick in. I had been having a hardcore craving for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and I ate it! I didn't scarf it. I like to peel away the chocolate. There's a ritual to it.

My mom called and it was all happy and positive. She seemed to have energy and good talking points. It was good!

I put the Gilmore Girls on and that show really is just a good thing to have on in the background. Maybe no more idiot shows.

Then my package of shirts I ordered arrived and I was excited to share all the cool ones I got from TeeTurtle for my daughter and the ones I got for me. It was the Halloween ones that were 50% off two weeks ago. My daughter even decided her and I would wear this one matching shirt together tomorrow. AWE!

Today felt like one of those snow days that Lorelai talks about. Just good everywhere. My husband's Pepsi was even on sale!

The sad part, though, is that my husband just really wasn't up for playing D&D today and my daughter was kind of upset about it. But it was just Out of the Abyss and taking a break is fine. We'll do it tomorrow. It's alright!

So what a great day! Good times!

How the Iron Fist Brought Zen to My Classroom

It's time for testing in our state. We're trying to create these positive and zen environments for the students so as not to overly tax them in order to reduce stress. Students are given peppermint candies to have during the test. Some of us are using essential oil diffusers to wake up the mind with essential oils. I even have my Himilayan Salt Lamp going to help remove negative energies in the room. Sitting in here right now I have never felt so very zen.

Now... I teach Science for the first hour of the day. It's quite a bit of reading and the curriculum lesson itself, I thought, was a bit heavy for the students. So I wanted to do something different, especially since in Literacy they're all taking the Reading portion of the exams. I didn't want to burden and tax them with excessive reading and processing when I was about to ask them to do this on a state exam.

As I drove to school that morning wracking my brain for what I could do it hit me. No, literally... a fist of iron just cracked my skull. In theory, when Danny Rand does his "tai chi" he centers his body so that his chi is strong. Then he uses that chi's potential energy to energize his fist, which then produces kinetic energy and knocks out Luke Cage! Sure, there's magic, blah blah blah, but there it is!

So I had this whole explanation worked out. I had appropriate clips chosen, even showing him doing the whole "calm face" to summon his chi and the fist glow. It was so cool. So then I gave the kids a quick rundown of chakras and calming the body and how when our chakras are out of alignment it can cause problems in our body. So by meditating and doing tai chi, we can center ourselves, store our potential energy to then push out into the world.

I put on some Tibetan bowl music, we meditated with spines straightened to try to align out chakras. Then we all stood together and practiced tai chi! Ended with a little more meditation and then they left.

When I saw some of my students for testing an hour later, they said they still felt good. At the end of the test, there were only 10 minutes left in class and a few of them asked me to put the music back on. They were quiet, focused, etc. So lovely.

I know it all sounds crazy, but we're going to debrief tomorrow and it hopefully put them in a better frame of mind to be successful with their stressful forward exam. GO MARVEL!

The Marvel Immersion Experiment

My husband and I LOVE Marvel. Even before we were together, my husband was really into Marvel. I didn't get to develop my secret penchant for geekdom until I started dating him, but it was always there. With the release of Sam Raimi's Spiderman movies, we were hooked into the Marvel universe again. I was learning the lore and backstories and all sorts of things.

See... when I was a kid... my mom told me only losers read comic books and to stay away from them. Only wanting to make my parents happy, I stayed away from the giant bin of comics in our basement that were given to my mom from my older cousin - clearly thinking my brother would like them (because seriously... girls were just not part of that scene back in the day... as much as we want to debate and argue that... it's a rough sell).

As Marvel grew in popularity and finally the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) hatched into existence, we, too, found ourselves pulled into the vortex. I'm not going to get into the whole battle of the fandoms between Marvel and DC. DC has it's merits, but I've found the storytelling and foundational connections much richer in the Marvel Universe, whereas DC continues to go to the same stock characters in every reboot, just attempting to justify the changes that they make. My opinion, not really looking to start a thing.

Again, as I was saying, we were caught in the vortex. So much so that my husband got out his old Marvel (TSR) roleplaying game. He had gotten it out prior when I was working on an "Origin Stories" unit in my seventh grade Literacy class four years ago. We created a character for each student and they had to write an origin story for that character. The sky was the limit for how creative they could be. So I was familiar with the system before he brought it out. But this time... it was my turn to create a character.

From this my secret RPG alter-ego was born: Io Leda from the planet Edhyla - a genetically created being of her planet's species who flees her creator and arrives on Earth, hiding out and trying to fit in.

My god I love her so very much. No, seriously... I have written so much supplemental material on her it is insane! I've been talking to my husband about trying to turn some of our stories into a blog of fanfic, but the jury is still out on that one.

Digressions... I'm sorry. Bottom line... we love Marvel.

When the Infinity Wars trailer dropped, I started seeing .gif posts about watching every MCU movie that would lead you up to the release of Infinity Wars. I liked the sound of that, but then... I thought... maybe I should push it one step further. I like to do that, just to torture myself and then be disappointed when I don't keep up with it. (If you're reading this blog, you know I have a tendency to abandon the wagon when life starts to take up too much of... well... my geek life.)

A while ago, my husband and I were talking about all the ways to watch the movies, especially when we started watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (AoS). Do we spread things out and watch the episodes intermingled with the movies.... do we watch the movies as their own entity.... what about the Netflix series?  My husband decided he wanted to watch the series in Phases, but that also means we don't technically get to watch Phase 3, because we don't own Phase 3, because Phase 3 is like... a million times bigger than Phase 1 and Phase 2! Absurdly so...

I, though, love getting into the hardcore nitty-gritty of things like this. I don't want to phase it and just leave the TV/Series out. Instead, I'd like to just really throw myself into the convoluted world of all the things. But that created it's own conundrum. I read one article that essentially said it broke up the AoS just to give people a break from AoS. Well... that seems incredibly irresponsible.  At the same time, I don't know if I really know where it belongs....

I am in agreement, though, with where to put things like Daredevil and Luke Cage... essentially The Defenders. I know there's a subtle hint here and there about some sort of larger universe connection, but they really are focused on The Hand and not the intergalactic side of it all. I will say, though, haters gonna hate on Iron Fist, but having no preconceived notions I found him to be endearing and NOTHING like all the other "billionaire" superheroes. After his initial phase of mansplaining wore off, I understood him for who he was and it is unique. So I, personally, appreciate his story. Is it my favorite? That's pushing it, but I enjoyed it.

Essentially, I'm not an expert. I've taken several different variations of lists and articles and other and generated one that felt right for me. So fingers crossed that this all goes well.

The Beginning

1. Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter (DVD: IM3) - And then retcon it… hehe.
2. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
3. Marvel's Agent Carter (S1 & 2)
4. Iron Man (2008)
5. Iron Man 2 (2010)
6. Marvel One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer (DVD: CA:FA)
7. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
8. Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant (DVD: Thor)
9. Thor (2011)
10. Marvel's The Avengers (2012)
11. Marvel One-Shot: Item 47 (DVD: Avengers)
12. Iron Man 3 (2013)
13. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S1, E1-7)
14. Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King (DVD: T:DW)
15. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
16. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S1, E8-15)
17. Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)
18. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S1, E16-22)
19. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
20. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
21. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S2, E1-19)
22. Marvel's Daredevil (S1)
23. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
24. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S2, E20-22)
25. Ant-Man (2015)
26. Marvel's Jessica Jones (S1)
27. Marvel's Daredevil (S2)
28. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S31-19)
29. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
30. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S3, E20-22)
31. Marvel's Luke Cage (S1)
32. Doctor Strange (2016)
33. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S4)
34. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
35. Marvel's Iron Fist (S1)
36. Marvel's The Defenders (S1)
37. Inhumans (S1)
38. Marvel's The Punisher (S1)
39. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
40. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S5, first half)

NOT YET RELEASED

• Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S5, second half) - I’m sure exactly where this will fit in)
• Black Panther (February, 2018)
• Jessica Jones (S2) (March, 2018)
• Avengers: Infinity War (May, 2018)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (July, 2018)
• Luke Cage (S2) (2018?)
• Cloak & Dagger (2018?)

Sherlock Christmas Special Teaser Trailer & Prediction

Like many people, I am a super fan of Sherlock. Love, love, love the show. I eagerly await all the bits and pieces of information that trickle in. I've always been a Sherlock fan, but this BBC series has me completely smitten.

So I've been watching all the little secrets and bits and pieces that have been released here and there. Finally, today, I saw the trailer.

Everyone is trying to figure out what the deal is with the trailer. We know it's set in Victorian times (Sherlock's original setting) and the characters are actually out and about in Victorian garb and Victorian London. One of the earlier predictions indicated they might be going to a costume party.

As if to join the huddled masses full of theories, I have devised a potential theory about the Sherlock Christmas Special!

As Watson has mentioned often, he writes a blog about his adventures. I think Watson was able to finally turn his writing into a novel and wrote a story about himself and Sherlock set in the 19th Century. That would explain some of the things that Sherlock says, especially talking about how he was created and even the mention of war.  The opening of the trailer talks about setting the stage and the curtain rising, which reflects the beginning of a story... a play, but this is too elaborate to be a play.

It could also explain where Watson tells Sherlock to put on the hat. They could be dressing up to go out for the book.

I don't know, I just thought that could be the key.... that John Watson finally turned Sherlock into a book. The trailer has a very story-like feel, with Sherlock's lines feeling unlike his typical Sherlock character persona.

Guess we'll see when all the fog and mystery is removed!

Been on Vacation

Sorry my dearest blog. I fell off the blog-wagon when I left for an epic road trip. A family trip to Universal Orlando for a week and then a week with my husband's family in North Carolina. Then upon arriving home there are the standard get-back-to-normal behaviors and I challenged myself to host a "mom-come-up-and-visit" 4th of July.

AND on top of all of that, I've been preparing for my daughter entering Kindergarten and preparing for my seminar at GenCon 2015 and working on some Professional Development. Wait wait wait. . . I've only been home for 4 days, how is all this happening? Well. . . I shockingly have a very frantic mind.

As my daily schedules start to iron themselves out, I'll be back to posting. So much to do!

So for now. . . enjoy some pictures from a quick The Walking Dead stop while driving "through" Atlanta!

28 Days of Lists - Day 4: Geek Girl Power

Day 4 is Geek Girl Power and I wasn't sure what to do with this, so I just tried to think of geeky power.

1. Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation

Um. . . seriously made me feel empowered as a geeky woman.

2. Felicia Day from . . . well. . . the internet

LOVE HER! Seriously representing and giving geek women a voice in geekdom. There are tons of other women, too, but Day really helped bring it out, I think.

3. IGGPPC

Is that cheating? I hope not! GO GEEK GIRLS!

4. Rachel Maddow

Talk about a news nerd! She is so awesome and just really lets her passion for news and entertaining show. Like a female Jon Stewart. Love her to pieces.

5. Michonne from The Walking Dead

Well centered, well-meaning, tough, and just an all around bad-ass. If I survive the Zombie Apocalypse, I want to be like Michonne. For all her losses, she rises again and moves forward being strong, contemplative, and caring. The sword doesn't hurt.

Meet Me at the Table: The Walking Dead Card Game

The Walking Dead Season 5 airs on Sunday, October 12.  In preparation, I’ve been playing Walking Dead games. The first, and the easiest, is The Walking Dead Card Game.  The game seems to fall roughly around the beginning of Season 3, when our survivors have attempted to create a livable habitat in the prison. I am a die-hard Walking Dead fan and I also am a zombie-freak! I am well-versed in the cultural canon of zombies and it’s hard to pass up games, movies, TV-shows, or books. So I honor of one of my favorite shows airing and honoring the month of October, I will be reviewing some Walking Dead and other zombie games!

Title: The Walking Dead Card Game

 

Geeky Specs

Designer: Wolfgang Kramer                                    Published by: Cryptozoic Entertainment
Year Published: 2013                                                 

Rough Game Time: 15+ minutes (depending on players)
Players: 2-10 (if using Survival Mode)                   Suggested Ages: 15+
Type: Card Game, Hand Management

 

What’s the Story, Morning Glory?

There needs to be hope in order to survive! Working together, hope can be found and zombies can be destroyed! Choose a hero and take out the walkers before all hope is gone. . . For everyone!

 

What’s in the Box?

• 110 game cards
  • 104 walker cards
  • 6 Hero cards
    • Maggie
    • Glen
    • Rick
    • Andrea
    • T-Bone
    • Darryl
• 1 set of Rules

 

How To Play or Not to Play, That is the Question

1. Start out by separating the Hero cards from the Zombie cards.
2. Each player takes a Hero. They all do the same thing, so the preference is just the character.
3. Then, the Zombie deck should be shuffled.
4. Deal out 15 cards to each player, in addition to your Hero. So you should have 16 cards.
5. Then draw four cards and lay them face up along the left side of the play area. Lay them so that it creates 4 rows.
6. Put the rest of the cards aside, as they will not be needed.
7. During each turn, the players choose one or two cards they are going to play that round.  They lay them facedown in front of them.
8. When everyone is ready, the cards are revealed. The player with the lowest placeable card goes first with that card. Then the next lowest card and so-on until all the cards have been played.
9. If you played a Hero as one of your two cards, you get to place your card, no matter the value, first.
10. The goal is to collect a row of 5. When you play the 6th card, you collect the 5 before it and the 6th card becomes the new #1 card in the row.

 

The End

The game ends when players are out of cards in their hand. They then count up the points on the cards they have collected.  These points are determined by the number of bullets on the cards. The highest total amount wins!

Rules Weren’t Meant to Be Broken (Or Were They?)

One of the rules that we had to remember, as it felt a little awkward, was that you can place smaller number cards at the end of the highest number cards. For example, if you have a 1 or 2 in your hand, but there are no cards in play that would allow you to play them, just look for the highest number set and it goes behind those cards.

Also, do not look at the card at the beginning of the row when looking for the lowest card. Always look at the card farthest to the right for the lowest number.

There are two additional play-types with this game. You can play in Survival Mode, which allows for up to 10 players, or you can play Solitaire. In Survival Mode you want to collect as few points as possible. The above directions are for Hero Mode. Solitaire has directions available on BoardGameGeek.com.

Best Played Under These Conditions

The more people, the better. You can play with just two people, but the cards don’t rotate out as quickly and sometimes you really get stuck in a jam. The more people who play the game, the more options you have for strategizing and the game play moves quicker.  A player range of 3-6 would be best.

Spice Up Your Game

This is perfect to play between episodes or during commercial breaks. You can always stop and pick up the game. A rousing addition to any kind of Walking Dead marathon! The simplicity of it makes it easy for fans of all ages to play and you can play several rounds of it without breaking a sweat.

Due to the quickness and simplicity of the game, it might be best to hold off on any kind of going-all-out zombie party. This would be a quick addition to an already established party. So really, it’s a quick game to play in-between more intense zombie games, while still embracing the theme of zombie.

If you’re really needing to have something special during this game, I suggest Mitch’s Walker’s Blood drink. Mitch is one of the Vloggers for Geek & Sundry and has all sorts of nerdy cocktails that he creates. It’s a pretty simple drink that can be easily made with the exact ingredients, or ingredients that can be easily substituted without changing the thematic taste of the drink.  Please remember, only create this drink if you are of legal drinking age and remember to Drink Responsibly!



For a non-alcoholic drink for your evening, try Rachael Ray’s Blueberry Iced Tea! Classic southern Iced Tea with a Blueberry twist! It even has an eerie color.

Finale

The Walking Dead Card Game is a very light card game. I enjoyed the quick-play value, but the real joy of playing came from the Walking Dead connection. The game itself isn’t unique, but it has replay value. When I played, I had to really stay on top of things. If there were a different skin on it, it would be great for kids. Wolfgang Kramer  created a game called 6 nimmt! which operates under the same rules (The Walking Dead is just a skin of that game), which could be fun, potentially for younger players.

As a game, take it or leave it. Great for those games you play between the heavier ones, but it is a gimmick and the game-play really has absolutely nothing to do with The Walking Dead or zombies. It’s just about the pictures and the fun that you are able to add to it. If you’re a fan and want an easy game, this is it. If you’re hardcore about the quality of your game collection, you might want to pass this one by.

Loot Crate Unboxing - September 2014: GALACTIC

Back in July, I was lured in by the geeky-something-shiny of Loot Crate. So many neat little special items to call my very own for a set price every month. I'm not usually turned on by subscription boxes. I've done food ones in the past like Graze (UK...now in the US) and Nature Box (US). Yet, one of the parts of my Fitness Goals says that I am allowed to reward myself big at certain milestones. And with that. . . I signed up for Loot Crate.

Loot Crate is a monthly box of Geek & Gamer gear. Subscriptions vary from one month to six months. I currently have the sixth month recurring subscription.

Each month is a special theme. So when I signed up it was VILLAINS! August's crate was HEROES! There was a glow-in-the-dark exclusive Funko Pop bobble-head Groot in this one. (I keep it at school and my kids LOVE it!) While these two crates were nice, they weren't really wowing me like what I've seen in past crates. Yet, one of the options that Loot Crate has is to sometimes buy leftover Loot Crates from previous months. I bought the June crate: TRANSFORM. It had some neat things in it.

Each crate has some nice pieces. The VILLAINS crate was the most-underwhelming so far, but the September crate even impressed my hard-to-impress husband who does not like that I signed up for Loot Crate. September's Loot Crate theme is: GALACTIC! That is right up my alley. They've been tempting us with bits and pieces for the last month. So I already knew there would be Star Trek, Star Wars, and Firefly, as well as some other galactic type stuff.

It arrived yesterday and I felt compelled to do my first unboxing EVER! Not a video, but pictures. So. . . beyond this point, let me know what you thought of the unboxing.

LOOT CRATE SEPTEMBER: GALACTIC

 

LET THE AWESOME BEGIN!  

Below you will see what came in the box, as well as inside pictures of the box itself. They theme out the insides of the boxes, as well. 

 

We all know Tribbles are trouble, and now you have one of your very own. It is a plush Tribble with directions on the package for how to care for your Tribble, such as keeping them away from Klingons.  Light and fluffy, but it did shed a little bit when I took it out. This is a Loot Crate exclusive.

This box was a Mystery Mini. It could have been one of many different items. When I opened mine, I had gotten Captain Mal from Firefly. This is a Loot Crate Exclusive and everyone, according to the Loot Crate magazine, received a Captain Mal.

Each Loot Crate includes a pin for the theme of the crate. It is picture below with some awesome Pop Rocks Green Apple candy. On the right is a Star Wars Exclusive Retro Arcade Magnet. 

An Alien collectable figure was also included. Just like in previous boxes, they randomly put a figure into the box. I lucked out and got the Alien. They also had available Ripley, Kane, Dallas, and Ash.

It took me a moment to realize this was Firefly Bank Robbery Money, which can be used as currency in the Firefly universe. So now when I need to seek passage on a ship outta this crazy place, I have the creds to do so.

 And finally, snuggled away at the bottom of the box, was this perfect 9 x 27 poster of Han Solo. ::swoon::

The crate also game with a HALO code for digital loot and, as always, the Loot Crate magazine. The magazine has neat information and also explains all of your materials. So if you didn't know or understand why something was in your box, you could find out. This month's magazine has a little Behind-the-Scenes of Loot Crate's Short - The Verse.

And, finally. . . the empty box. The perfect playground for your new loot!  

If you don't want to miss out on this level of awesome in your life, make sure you go and sign up for Loot Crate.

Game of Thrones Warrior Name

In a moment of silliness, I was curious what my Game of Thrones Warrior Name would be. So I had to put in my first and last name and then pick a weapon. Here is what I got. . .

I feel it is a little cliche being House Targaryen, but hey. . . dragons are cool! I just love that I'm disgraced and the breaker of summer. haha!

Find out your name!

Happy Father's Day

 

It's Father's Day and my daughter and I had some special stuff planned for dad. Sure my husband would have preferred for us to vacate and he have a day alone, relaxing. But our plans were WAY more fun.

First, there was breakfast. Scrambled eggs with shredded havarti over naan. Then, we gave him his awesome gifts. He had already gotten one of them two weeks ago. . . a cotton candy maker. My daughter thought it was a great idea and because the two of them love cotton candy, I thought they could have fun with it. Did I mention you can put any hard candy in it and it'll make cotton candy out of it? Oh yeah. Plus, we can make cotton candy whenever we want! Which, quite honestly, saves on the running out to purchase some and turns into a family activity of fun and laughs. 

Next, we got him a Sherlock Holmes book pillow from Think Geek. Ray and I have been talking a lot about Sherlock Holmes lately, because I'm taking a renewed visit through the compendium of Sherlock texts that I own. All in preparation for watching the BBC Sherlock. Plus, well. . . we've got some Scottish connections. Trust me, it's a super thoughtful gift idea.

And finally, from me to him, I got him the most recent Pathfinder (ACG) adventure pack: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords Deck 5 - Sins of the Saviors Adventure Deck. After we finish binge watching Eureka, we're going to continue on our campaign. Probably around Wednesday, it looks like. We get to spend time together, just the two of us, which is always hard to do with all our other obligations. So it was supposed to be special to remind him that we still have time for each other through everything.

Since we had two hours before we had to go, Ray wanted to watch an episode of Eureka. We're making our way through and he is just OBSESSED with it! I really like the show, but he just can't not have it playing at every opportunity. So he put on an episode while we ate breakfast and I baked him a Heart-centered cake. 

As fate would have it, the episode was the perfect Father's Day episode. The episode was "Reprise," also known as the episode where Felicia Day makes her first appearance. So that was bonus #1. Ray's been watching and watching for her first episode. We'd already seen Wil Wheaton, so he was super excited to see her. Next, the episode has Allison Blake leaving Carter with her two kids, so he got to be all fatherly to them. Again, another big point of awesome and perfect for Father's Day.  Finally, it dealt with the suggestive nature of music. Playlists are something my husband was totally into. He even made seventh playlists for our daughter before she was born. We'd play them for her while I was pregnant and play them for her constantly now (in the car, in the house, etc.). So that was a super awesome moment, as well. It was just the perfect Father's Day episode for my husband and it was totally by chance that it happened.

Then, we all loaded up and went to Green Bay to spend a Day Out with Thomas at the National Railroad Museum! We shared in our daughter's first major geek love and her and daddy had so much fun geeking together. He knows ALL the trains and together they share in that love! I got to do all the craft stuff with her and then we all rode on the train. This was fun for Ray and I, because we used to always travel by train when we lived in Scotland and we miss train travel a good deal now. Isabelle hadn't been on a big train before, so this was super fun for her, too.

My daughter and I had our own little geek moment. As we left the museum, we went over to the crosswalk and I said "hey, Thomas hasn't left the station yet. Let's run down and say goodbye!" So my daughter and I ran to the end where Thomas was. We wanted to see his face, which was hard to do at the place, because you have to do the whole pay-for-pictures thing and we didn't have the money or the patient toddler for that. So as my daughter yelled GOODBYE! The eyes on Thomas moved to my daughter and Thomas smiled! We squealed with girly delight and cheered. Then I noticed the conductor of Thomas. He had seen us and made Thomas look at us. That really made the day and we ran off back to Ray.

On our way home from Green Bay, we went for dinner at Outback. This restaraunt dates back to our early dating years and is always a fun little stop. We even ordered the Thunder from Down Under and I shared the memory of when he first took me to Outback and I first had one of these. It was super cute.

We went home. Watched a little more Eureka and called it a night. We had to resolve the Bev mini-arch that started in "Reprise." It was a really nice day for daddy. My husband is such an awesome dad. I put the Gru picture up top, because he reminds me of my husband and how he really is a wonderful house-dad. He is so great with our daughter and really takes care of the whole family.

So Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there of all sorts.